Page 24 of Forbidden Fruit

“Okay.”

She got up from the bed and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth, while I laid back in the bed for a minute. It seemed like this was all a dream, in the words of Biggie Smalls. The woman of my dreams was mine forever. The first time I saw her while picking my mama up, I’d been mesmerized. She was so beautiful.

Vashti walked back in the room and smiled at me. She walked over and kissed my lips, as I pulled her in the bed with me. The minute she hit the bed laughing, she had to jump right back up. That morning sickness wasn’t no joke. I went to the bathroom to check on her. “Sorry, Drek. I think I kneed you in the part of you that matters most.”

My eyebrows rose dramatically. “Oh, that’s the part that matters most, huh?”

She almost choked on her mouthwash. I laughed and pulled her to me once she spit it out. “I love you, Vashti.”

“I love you too, Drek. I was joking, but it is pretty high on the list.”

“Alright! That’s how y’all got the one you got in the oven!” my mama yelled from her room.

We both laughed as I cradled Vashti in my arms and brought her back to the room. My mama was crazy, and I was glad Vash was gonna get to know this side of her.

After I got to work and clocked in, I noticed a champagne-colored Mercedes parked in the lot. It looked a lot like the Mercedes I’d seen Vashti getting in the first time I’d seen her. When her mother got out, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I didn’t have time for this shit.

Vashti was a younger, lighter complexion of her mother, Dr. Loretta Levine. I walked out of the car wash, and she spotted me immediately. She walked over as I remained still, watching her and bracing myself for the bullshit. When she got to me, she said, “I’m sorry for coming to your job, but I need to talk to you. What time will you go to lunch?”

“I have a thirty-minute break at two.”

“Okay, I’ll come back. I’ll bring lunch.”

I was stunned into silence. Whatever she had to talk to me about couldn’t have been bad if she was going to bring lunch. Since we didn’t have any customers yet, I called Vashti as I watched her drive away. “Hello?”

“Guess who came to my job to talk?”

“Oh shit. Did Minesh come to your job?”

“No. Loretta.”

“What? What did she want?”

“I don’t know. She’s coming back at two on my break, and she’s bringing me lunch.”

“Well, damn. Let me know how that goes.”

“I will, baby. I miss you already.”

“I miss you too, but Ms. Carol is keeping me company. We’re trying to organize my things.”

“Okay, lil mama. Well, I’ll call you later. Love you, Chitrita.”

“I love you too, Gray.”

I smiled as I ended the call. Yeah, my ass was whupped. Whenever I talked to her, I knew I told her I loved her at least twenty times. It was like I couldn’t express it enough, especially because I knew she would say it back to me. After taking a deep breath, I carried my ass to the first car coming off the rails to get this day over with.

At two o’clock exactly, Mrs. Loretta was driving back in the parking lot. I was putting the finishing touches on a Porsche I had detailed. She waved at me, then sat at one of the picnic tables in the waiting area. Once the customer took off, I went clocked out, washed my hands, and made my way to her. She smiled, then took out a Styrofoam container. “Thank you for lunch.”

“You’re welcome, Jedrek.”

When I opened that box and saw those boiled shrimp, my head snapped up. “You tryna bribe me?”

She laughed. I even gave a slight chuckle. “No. I’ve never had anything against you. If you were the thug my husband was trying to make you out to be, then we would have problems. I just wanted to let you know that y’all have my support. There’s no possibility my grandchild will be born without me being there to see it. My husband is over-protective of Vashti. It has a lot to do with his past. Vashti doesn’t know this, but he had a sister that was killed due to domestic violence. Vashti was only two years old when that happened.”

She lowered her head for a moment, then continued. “So, he vowed to protect his daughter at all costs. He didn’t like the boyfriends before you, but when he saw how deeply Vashti cared for you, he really flipped out. The problem is that you look a lot like Jeff, his sister’s fiancé. Jeff played a cool role in front of everyone but was beating the shit out of Leslie in private.”

“I could never hurt Vashti. She’s like a rare treasure.”

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